Thoughts on Cornerstone

Cornerstone Festival has become a tradition for me. But it has also changed into something very different from what it started as.

Liz, Julia, Deon & Knate from Anberlin and me in 2006

When I first attended in 2006 with my two best friends we made an effort to always be at shows, we were practically never at our campsite or having downtime. I think I bought at least 10 t-shirts and 10 cd’s that year. It was all about the music back then.

Me, Stephen from Anberlin and Alice in 2007

The RKMB in 2008

The next few years my dad and sister came along and we camped with some family friends and I met up with a few new internet friends. Still, my schedule was full of bands that I currently loved. In 2009 I was forced to miss out on the festival as my family traveled Europe for a month. Oh well.

The RKMB in 2010

Back in action in 2010 I camped with a group of people I will refer to only as The RKMB. That year I made a lot of great new friends, went into town for lunch almost every single day and also went to quite a few seminars. I didn’t see as many bands in 2010, but there was nothing disappointing about that year at all. Also, I met some people from Pick a Pocket who then told me about the YWAM school that I will be attending this year. Win!

[no 2011 picture available yet!]

This year I didn’t make it to the fest until Friday night and had to leave Sunday night so my stay was much shorter than usual. (I almost didn’t think I would be able to go because money is so tight saving for YWAM). I camped with The RKMB yet again and met even more fabulous people, but I could just tell there was something different about this year. There weren’t very many bands I was interested in seeing. Instead of listening to almost entirely bands from the Tooth and Nail label, I now listen to Mumford and Sons, Cloud Cult, Bon Iver and Lady Gaga. Those just aren’t Cornerstone bands you see… I assumed that my tastes were just diverging and Cornerstone would keep on thriving in its own direction. Still, I felt like there was an overall lack on energy everywhere I went on the grounds. Finally I heard someone say that unlike past years when the festival averages around 20,000 people, there were only 5,000 this year (if someone can give me a source to confirm this it would be great!).

I did manage to discover one new artist (not new to music, just new to me) on Sunday night. It was after Brooke Waggoner (download her cd for free here!!) that they made an announcement and opened discussion about Cornerstone’s future. Okay, so they might have made the announcement at other times, I just didn’t go to very many shows all weekend (maybe 4 total?). They said that this year they were unable to break even on the festival and they had lost so much money that it is extremely unlikely that Cornerstone will look the same next year. It might be somewhere different, more accessible, or it might just be much more intimate and smaller. For some reason I can’t explain, this news has been hard for me. I guess Cornerstone has just always meant so much to me. Even more than I realized. The diversity of the people there that you just don’t see anywhere else… One day this past year I was feeling out of place at school and I took a moment to try to think about where I’ve felt the most at home. Its a huge leap since I only spend a week there every year, but Cornerstone was what came to mind.

Saying goodbye to old traditions is… weird. And to make it even worse, its not like I will be able to go back and revisit this old tradition again. It just won’t be there, or the same.

Here is a post from the official Cornerstone Blog titled “This is Not the End”. Their title is pretty much calling out my pessimism, huh?

3 Responses to Thoughts on Cornerstone

Jerry Ray
July 5, 2011 at 11:33 am

Hi! Thanks for linking to my blog on the fest site. I was at the Brooke Waggoner set, too. I was feeling a little down on the week – this year didn’t much feel like Cornerstone to me, either – but that show provided me with one of those “Cornerstone moments” that keep me coming back.

I heard the announcement that Glenn, the stage manager, made after the show, and when I mentioned it to some of the fest staff that work in the media trailer, they just kind of laughed it off. I think the festival director’s response was something like “hmm, I’m glad he knows what’s happening, because I’m not sure yet.” So I’d take what he said with a grain of salt – like I said in the blog (and I’m not affiliated with the fest, I just have friends that work on the media team), it seems to me like something needs to change for the fest to survive, but it’s not dead yet.

Here are a few more thoughts that came to mind as I considered what you wrote. I kind of understand what you’re talking about (see my festival blogs “Welcome Home, Cornerstone” and “Right Here, Right Now”). I’ve been going to Cornerstone for 14 years, and it’s changed a lot over those years (although honestly, the changes in the last couple of years were a lot bigger than the ones that came before). I started out mostly going to see bands like Over the Rhine, the Choir, the 77′s, Vigilantes of Love, and so forth, and some of those are still around, but my approach to the festival has had to change over the years. So, some unsolicited advice:

- Dig deep. Because a lot of my old favorite bands aren’t around anymore, I’ve had to work harder to a) weed out all the hardcore and folky stuff that I have no interest in, and b) identify bands that I’m not familiar with that sound promising. To that end, my friends and I started making our own “program” for the festival every year, reviewing every band and rating them so we can figure out what we want to see. As a result, I seldom find myself watching a band I don’t like, and there’s an almost constant stream of bands I’m at least curious about, even this year. (The lack of a Tooth & Nail presence at the festival does hurt, though – there’s a giant stylistic hole in the festival where some polished, experienced, melodic rock bands from T&N ought to be.)

There’s a lot of good music to be found, you just have to go look for it. I found Seabird, Quiet Science, and Deas Vail that way 4 or 5 years ago. In the last couple of years, bands like Milano, the Rendition, Adelaine, Campbell the Band, Mike Mains & the Branches, Brooke Waggoner, and others have come onto my radar this way. Don’t discount the “old people” music, either – there’s a reason some of these bands (the Choir, Daniel Amos, Over the Rhine when they play) have been playing the festival for decades – their music is still vital, and still has something to say.

- Get involved. Write blogs for the fest site (new blood is always a good thing for that). If you’re a good photographer or video guy, work with the media team. Volunteer. Or dream up some new thing to do (like the girl with the free ramen tent) and do that. A lot of my friends have moved from “fan” involvement to “semi-official” involvement with the festival over the years. It’s a different way to experience things, but it’s still fun.

- Don’t discount just hanging out. The main reason I go to Cornerstone is still to see bands, but hanging out with my friends (some of whom I only see once a year for a week at Cornerstone) is a close second. I had big plans to go see Saviour Machine and some other stuff after Anberlin this year, but we ended up sitting out in the Main Stage field until like 1 AM dreaming up ways to save the festival, which was ultimately a lot more rewarding than going to another show (unless that show happened to be awesome, in which case I don’t want to hear about it).

On attendance, I don’t think the fest has had 20K people for a while. That was pretty much the peak attendance back around 10 years ago. I don’t think this year was as low as 5K – my guess is around 7500, but I haven’t heard any official or semi-official number. For whatever reason, it didn’t seem like things really reached “critical mass” this year, I agree. The heat didn’t help the atmosphere, either – this is the first time in maybe 5 years that we had truly oppressive weather, and that definitely puts a damper on things.

Thanks so much for your thoughts! You really wrote out a lot!
I like your suggestion about getting more involved. I actually am a photographer so I would really like to be able to use that more ~officially, haha. At the same time I wonder that if I’m not “feeling” the energy anymore, it would probably be hard to capture? Oh well, I will definitely be following the brainstorms to hear what is coming next!